Inway Ni from 4399.com, the #1 game site in China presented on what it takes to be successful in China.

4399.com is the #1 one portal for flash and browser games in China. It has 100+ million users, 30+ million uniques per day. #75 in Google’s top 1000 websites Globally in August.

Understand China Users – Keep it Simple!

1. 4399.com is very effective even though they are very basic in terms of UI. The rapid growth of technology in China has resulted in websites needing to be very basic to succeed.
2. QQ – started as an instant messenger with a huge user base and publically listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Allows to use a number instead of an email address due to misspelling issues with addressing in instant messenger. Chinese are very good at remembering numbers. QQ has now expanded into most areas.
3. Taobao – killed ebay 3 years ago as ebays domain was Eachnet. Domain simplification is massively key.
4. Understand their PCs- 90% of all computers are very low end. Keep it simple and very clean in terms of technology.
5. Where they start internet browsing – a few million people search “BAIDU” in Baidu every month. The average user starts on a layered directory home page like hao123.com. They also use tools like messenger and discover from there.

Tips before Search Marketing

ICP or no?
It is complex in China. ICPs (Internet Content Provider Certificate) are not required by every website. It is required for commercial websites.Any other certifications?
Depends on the type of business, 4399.com needs 3 or 4 certificates to operate.How to get a .cn domain?
Only companies with legal entities in China can register a .cn domain. Although it’s not impossible, a company there can hold a domain for you.Hosting?
Make sure you get a hosting company with direct connections with each of the broadband suppliers in China or the site will be very slow.Translation?
Keep your translation up to date, use a local agency as it’s shifting too much.Trends

1) Google is still important in the PC and Mobile search markets
2) Apps allow browsing of Google through sites like 265.com although it is declining
3) Google has huge potential due to the android mobile platform. They will be able to distribute low cost phones and this will affect search engine usage.
4) SEM for shopping is very important – smart sold 500 cars in 3 hours of a campaign

Louis Venter is the founding director and CEO of MediaVision, a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) company specialising in all areas of search. His particular interests are organic search marketing, paid search marketing, conversion strategy and online PR.